December 19, 2011
Beth Hagenauer
Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif.
661-276-7960
beth.hagenauer-1@nasa.gov
Nicholas A. Veronico
SOFIA Science Center
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
650-604-4589
nveronico@sofia.usra.eduRELEASE: 11-38
SOFIA OBSERVATORY PEERS INTO HEART OF ORION NEBULA
This graphical representation from the SOFIA Science Center compares
two infrared images of the heart of the Orion nebula captured by the
FORCAST camera on the SOFIA airborne observatory's telescope with a
wider image of the same area from the Spitzer space telescope. (SOFIA
image -- James De Buizer / NASA / DLR / USRA / DSI / FORCAST; Spitzer
image -- NASA/JPL) › View Larger Image
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. -- A new image from NASA’s Stratospheric
Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) shows a complex
distribution of interstellar dust and stars in the Orion nebula.
Interstellar dust, composed mostly of silicon, carbon and other heavy
elements that astronomers refer to generically as “metals,” plus some
ice and organic molecules, is part of the raw material from which new
stars and planets are forming.
The two insets display mid-infrared images showing portions of the
Orion nebula star-forming region, also known as Messier 42 (M42). The
SOFIA images were produced by SOFIA staff scientist James De Buizer
and his collaborators from data obtained in May - June 2011 during
the SOFIA’s Basic Science program. The observations were made using
the Faint Object Infrared Camera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST)
instrument, led by principal investigator Terry Herter of Cornell
University. Those observations are subjects of scientific papers to
be submitted to The Astrophysical Journal.
The SOFIA’s large telescope is able to resolve many individual
protostars and young stars as well as knots of dust and gas that
could be starting the process of gravitational contraction to become
stars. The massive protostar known famously as the BN
(Becklin-Neugebauer) Object stands out as the individual blue source
in the red inset box. The BN/KL region of Orion gets its name from
the initials of pioneering infrared astronomers Eric Becklin, Gerry
Neugebauer, Doug Kleinmann and Frank Low who mapped it in the late
1960s and early 1970s, using some of the first astronomical infrared
detectors. In this image, infrared light with wavelengths of 20, 31,
and 37 microns, symbolized respectively by blue, green and red, is
seen coming from relatively cool interstellar dust with temperatures
of approximately 100 - 200 kelvins.
The SOFIA image in the blue inset box shows the Ney-Allen Nebula, a
region of intense infrared emission that was discovered surrounding
the luminous Trapezium stars by astronomers Ed Ney and David Allen.
Some of the compact features shown here are disks of dust and gas
around young solar-mass stars that could be planetary systems in the
process of formation. In this image, blue, green and red respectively
symbolize infrared light with wavelengths of 8, 20, and 37 microns,
coming from material as warm as 500 kelvins (450 F).
The large background image is a composite of data from the Spitzer
Space Telescope in which light with wavelengths of 7.9, 4.5, and 3.6
microns (represented respectively by red, green and blue) is emitted
from hot dust and gas heated by embedded stars, and from the stars
themselves. The BN/KL region is so bright as to be over-exposed in
the Spitzer image.
The two SOFIA images were made at combinations of wavelengths and
angular resolutions unavailable to any other observatory on the
ground or in space. The SOFIA and Spitzer images of Orion together
provide a comprehensive view of stages of star formation from cold
interstellar clouds to fully-fledged stars.
The SOFIA airborne observatory incorporates a 17-ton reflecting
telescope with an effective diameter of 2.5 meters (100 inches)
mounted inside an extensively modified Boeing 747SP. The SOFIA
aircraft flies at altitudes as high as 45,000 feet (14 km), above
more than 99 percent of the water vapor in Earth’s atmosphere that
blocks most infrared radiation from celestial sources.
The SOFIA is a joint program of NASA and the German Aerospace Center
(DLR), and is based and managed at NASA's Dryden Aircraft Operations
Facility in Palmdale, Calif. NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett
Field, Calif., manages the SOFIA science and mission operations in
cooperation with the Universities Space Research Association (USRA),
headquartered in Columbia, Md., and the German SOFIA Institute (DSI)
at the University of Stuttgart.
For more information about the SOFIA, visit: